JAKARTA: Indonesian Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has praised Saudi Arabia’s Makkah Route Initiative and hopes that the flagship program will be expanded to other cities in the country, his spokesperson told Arab News on Sunday.

With Hajj expected to start on June 14 this year, special pilgrimage flights from the Southeast Asian nation started on May 12.

Indonesia will be sending 241,000 Hajj pilgrims to the Kingdom this year and many pilgrims are departing under the Makkah Route Initiative, which was launched in Saudi Arabia in 2019 to help pilgrims meet all the visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin and save them long hours of waiting before and upon their arrival.

The initiative was expanded to three airports in the country this year and Amin visited one of the new cities — Solo, Central Java — over the weekend to take a look at the program in action.

“The working visit is the vice president’s appreciation on behalf of the government toward the Saudi government’s move in conducting a breakthrough and excellent program, the Makkah Route,” Masduki Baidlowi, the vice president’s spokesperson, told Arab News.

“This is extremely useful and beneficial for Hajj pilgrims, because many of the pilgrims are elderly and they are assisted by the Makkah Route program. With this program, the pilgrims are spared from exhaustion.”

Under the program, the pilgrims’ luggage is delivered straight to their hotels in Makkah and Madinah.

Amin surveyed the program in Solo in the company of the Saudi Director General of Passports Lt. Gen. Sulaiman bin Abdulaziz Al-Yahya, and Saudi Ambassador to Indonesia Faisal Abdullah Amodi.

Amin is hoping to see the initiative expanded to more cities in Indonesia next year.

“The vice president is hoping that the Makkah Route program can be expanded to Medan and Makassar, not just Jakarta, Solo and Surabaya,” Baidlowi said.

“This can be a symbol of friendship between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.”